Planning a Small Scale Industry for Automatic Sliding Doors Manufacturing 1 D. I. G. Chomo Department of Mechanical Engineering Plateau State Polytechnic Barkin Ladi, Jos, Nigeria line 3-City, Country 2 D. S. Yawas 3 S. Y Aku Department of Mechanical Engineering Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Nigeria Abstract— Automatic sliding doors ease movements through buildings and gating systems and though highly patronized and marketed in Nigeria it suffers lack of an indigenous manufacturing company. Plant layout which is a perquisite to establishing a manufacturing company is hereby designed. The process through which the door is manufactured is analysed, departments are designed from the type of machines used and materials processed, the number of movements of materials through the designed departments is analysed, the number of movements is used to design all the possible layouts, the layout with no backtracking, low cross movements and low cost is then selected. To help conserve foreign exchange and the attainment of national self reliance, the establishment of a small scale industry to manufacture automatic sliding doors is highly recommended Keywords— Cross movement, Backtracking, Material flow, Cost matrix , Automatic 1.0 INTRODUCTION As the Nigerian economy expands, it is pertinent to diversify it by designing industries that not only provide employment at the micro level, but help propel other sectors of the economy. It is observed that, there is no known automatic door manufacturing company in Nigeria. The aim of this work is to design a plant layout for a small scale industry to manufacture the door. This will help entrepreneurs to, not only take interest in establishing companies to address the issue of automatic sliding door manufacturing in Nigeria, but make the establishment of the company easier. The design takes into consideration components that are manufactured in this country such as products from aluminium foundries, sheet metal manufacturing companies, etc. This will make the product cost effective. Expectedly, the successful outcome of this work will help conserve foreign exchange by reducing importation of the product, and help the attainment of national objectives of self reliance. your paper. 2.0 PLANT LAYOUT Kumar [1], states that a small business requires a smaller area or space and can be located in any kind of building as long as the space is available and it is convenient. He went on to add that plant layout for small scale business is closely linked with the factory building and built up area. He also states that plant layouts are mainly of four types: product or line layout, process or functional layout, fixed position or location layout, and combined or group layout. The most commonly used layouts are the product and process layout. A comparison between the two types of layouts tabled by Yawas [2] is given in table 1 below. Table1: Comparison between product layout and process layout Product layout Process layout i Employed when there is a continuous production of items. I Employed when there is an intermittent production of items ii Equipment of special design are used ii General purpose equipment are used iii Will be involved in producing relatively large quantities of each product. Iii Will be involved in producing relatively small quantities of each product Source: Yawas [2]. 3.0 Materials and Methods 3.1 Layout Design Considerations Small business owners need to consider many operational factors when building or renovating a facility for maximum layout effectiveness. These criteria include the following: 3.1.1 Ease of future expansion or change. Facilities should be designed so that they can be easily expanded or adjusted to meet changing production needs. "Although redesigning a facility is a major, expensive undertaking not to be done lightly, there is always the possibility that a redesign will be necessary," [3]. 3.1.2 Flow of movement. The facility design should reflect recognition of the importance of smooth process flow. In the case of factory facilities, J.K. Lasser Institute [4] state that "ideally, the plan will show the raw materials entering your plant at one end and the finished product emerging at the other. The flow need not be a straight line. Parallel flows, U-shaped patterns, or even a zig-zag that ends up with the finished product back at the shipping and receiving bays can be functional. However, International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 www.ijert.org IJERTV4IS100179 (This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.) Vol. 4 Issue 10, October-2015 331